Love From, Me
by Princess-Rachy
Summary: TATE and MCABBY! There's a bet going and Abby's determined to win. McGee's a reluctant assistant and Kate and Tony are almostinnocent victims. R&R!


_**Disclaimer: I own nothing. As usual.**_

Timothy McGee got to work before his co-workers on Monday. As soon as he got to his desk he picked up the phone to ring his electrician. His lights had been flickering all night long and his phone wasn't working properly. He lay his head down on his keyboard as he kept the phone to his ear, listening to the hold music.

Just as he was drifting off to sleep, the elevator doors dinged open and Abby bounced over to him with a caf-pow in hand.

"Wakey wakey Timmy! I need your help!" She said loudly.

He opened one eye to look at her and hung up the phone.

"What?" He mumbled.

"I need you're help to hack! And besides… you're drooling on the McHenry file."

McGee forced himself to pick his head up off the desk.

"Hack what?" he yawned.

"Kate and Tony's emails," she smiled sweetly.

He cocked an eyebrow.

"And why would we need to do that?"

She sighed.

"McGee what date is it?"

"September 30th."

"Exactly. The last day of September. And what was the little bet we had going around here?"

"Uh, the Tony and Kate thing?'

"Precisely. I bet they'd get together before the end of September and today is the last day to play match-maker."

"Well I bet last July. Why should I help you win?"

"Because I'll show you my new tat?"

"Nuh-uh, I'm not falling for that again. Tell me where the tattoo is first."

Abby bent down and whispered something in his ear. McGee's fingers worked away fast on the keyboard.

About a minute later McGee rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"Tony's password is 'I am so hot'," he told her and she laughed.

"OK thanks Timmy, now you go get me another caf-pow while I… finish here," she told him as she shooed him out of his chair.

McGee did as he was told without argument. Whatever she was doing, he figured the less he knew about it the better.

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Kate arrived at work to find only Tony sat at his computer.

"Where is everyone?" she asked.

"And good morning to you too Katie."

"Sorry. Good morning Tony. Now… where is everyone?"

"Probie's with Abby and Boss is in MTAC."

"No new cases?"

"Nope, just –"

"Paperwork," she finished.

Tony nodded.

Booting up her computer, Kate decided to check her emails before starting on the large pile of files pushed aside on her desk.

She skimmed through her inbox.

_The director, brother, the director, Abby, Abby, Abby, Daily Horoscope…_

Kate yawned and scrolled back up to the top to click on the first email. It was from Tony. She opened it expecting a crude forwarded email, but instead got quite a shock.

_**Katie,**_

_**Come to dinner with me tonight.**_

**_Love, Tony._**

She looked across at her partner with a questioning look. He was reading his computer screen intently, seemingly not noticing her staring at him. She hit the reply button.

**Tony,**

**Pick me up at 8. You're buying and I want Italian.**

She paused. He'd written "_Love, Tony"_. That wasn't like him. She frowned and then resumed typing.

_**Love, Kate.**_

She heard Tony's computer ding shortly after she'd pressed send and she busied herself with a file.

Tony opened his emails and read the one from Kate. He got quite a shock.

"_Is she asking me out?"_ he wondered. He stole a glance at her, but she was pretending to be busy. Very unlike her, but hey he wasn't complaining.

_**Katie,**_

_**I knew you liked me really ;)**_

_**See you tonight.**_

He paused. She had written "_Love, Kate". _That really wasn't like her. He cocked his head to the side and then resumed typing.

_**Love, Tony**_

_**P.S. You have a twig in your hair.**_

He smirked to himself and then pressed the send button.

Kate read the email as soon as it arrived in her inbox. For some reason, she was holding her breath. When she got to the end, she sighed and her hand quickly moved to her hair. Tony watched her discretely and chuckled to himself.

"Relax Kate, there's nothing in your hair. Just had to make sure it was actually _you_ asking me out," he grinned at her.

"Me? Ask _you_ out? You're the one who sent me the email!"

"The only email I sent was the one about the twig. You sent me one about Italian at 8. In fact, it wasn't the nicest way to ask someone out Katie…"

"I didn't ask you out! I replied to your email! I can show you... And stop calling me Katie!"

Tony moved over to her desk to read the email over her shoulder.

"I didn't write that," he told her.

"Then who did?"

They both looked at each other as realization hit them.

"Abby," they both said together.

Kate closed her eyes and rubbed her brow. Tony didn't move from crouching behind her chair.

"So… Abby's playing match-maker, huh? Well, three can play at that game," Tony grinned.

"What are you thinking?"

"I dunno yet… but we've got tonight to plan revenge right?"

Kate looked up at him, confused and a little shocked.

"You still want to go?"

He was so close to her that he couldn't stop his eyes moving down to her lips and then quickly back up to her eyes.

"Sure, why not?" He spoke softly.

Kate bit her lip. _Why is he still so close!_ Her eyes danced between his eyes and his mouth, now only inches away from hers.

Someone cleared their throat behind them and they shot apart. Looking back, Kate was relieved to find McGee holding out a coffee for her.

"Thanks Tim," she took the drink from him but didn't take a sip. Instead, she got straight back to work, ignoring everything and everyone around her.

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"Abby, it's freezing out here! Can't we at least go inside and sit in the corner or something?"

"No McGee! They might see us. Come on I bet you don't whine this much when you're on a stake-out with Gibbs or Tony."

"That's different. I don't feel like a stalker then."

"We're not stalking them Timmy. I just want to make sure I get enough proof to win the bet."

"You hacked into their emails to get details of when and where they were meeting, you're dressed all in black and we tailed their car for 40 minutes!"

"I always dress in black," she gave him a blank look. "Timmy… have you noticed how high the stakes are!"

McGee sighed and shuffled to get more comfortable in the driver's seat. If he didn't enjoy Abby's company so much he wouldn't have even considered doing this.

In the restaurant, Kate and Tony were having more fun than either of them had predicted. It was just like having dinner with your best friend… only the anticipation made it all the more better.

"So… I got some information you may not like," Tony said after they ordered dessert.

"O…K…"

"People in the office have a bet going on. About how long it would be until we… hooked up," he told her.

Kate could feel her cheeks start to get hot.

"How did you find that out?" She asked him, trying to control the blush.

"I blackmailed Palmer… anyway that's not important. I figured out why Abby hacked into our emails this morning –"

"She bet on today?"

"Bingo."

"I can't believe them!"

'I can."

"What?"

"Kate, you should see the betting pool. It's like winning the lottery!"

"Tony!"

"Well all I'm saying is that if I knew about it, I'd bet."

"Unbelievable!"

"Kate… I have an idea."

She sighed.

"OK, let's hear it then."

"We tell Abby we'll give her all the proof she needs to win the bet, if we get 50 per cent of the profit," he grinned.

Kate unpacked what he said slowly in her mind.

"Tony… that requires public displays of affection."

"Well… that's not going to be a problem for me…"

Kate tried her hardest not to blush again. She opened her mouth to speak, but Tony cut her off.

"Kate, tonight's been fun. I'm _glad_ Abby hacked into my email this morning."

She sighed and looked at him grinning at her. She couldn't help it – a smile worked its way onto her lips. She stood and took his hand.

"C'mon then. Let's go tell her."

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"Um, Abby?"

"Yes McGee?"

"They're coming."

"They're what!"

Abby shot up in her chair and saw them weaving their way through the car-park toward them.

"McGee! What do we do!"

Um, uh…"

Just as Tony and Kate were a few meters away, McGee grabbed Abby roughly and kissed her. Abby didn't have time to argue, just kissed him back.

"Open up McGeek! We know why you're really here!" Tony called as he wrapped on the window. Kate chuckled softly behind him.

McGee let go of Abby and wound the window down.

"Uh, hi Tony. Fancy –"

"Save it. You guys want the money. And so do we. We're here to negotiate."

"How did you know we were here?" Abby questioned.

"We're trained agents. You're a lab rat and Probie's a probie."

Abby shrugged.

"Fair enough, what's the deal?"

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"You OK?" Tony asked Kate as they stood in front of his car.

"I'm more than OK."

He grinned. "Good."

Then he took her face in his hands and kissed her - slowly, perfectly – as Abby clicked away with the camera on the opposite side of the street.

_**The End! Wow that was a pretty long one-shot… Hmm… Long one-shot deserves long reviews! Pwetty Pweaze? Peace out!**_


End file.
